The Spaghetti tree is a fictitious tree, a joke designed to fool the gullible who do not know how spaghetti is produced.

The report that it is a product grown on trees was first produced as an April Fool's Day joke by the BBC TV programme Panorama in 1957, reporting on the bumper spaghetti harvest in Ticino, Switzerland due to the mild winter and "virtual disappearance of the spaghetti weevil". The report was given additional gravitas by the voiceover by respected broadcaster Richard Dimbleby. Pasta was not an everyday food in 1950s Britain, and was known mainly from tinned spaghetti in tomato sauce. An audience of approximately 8 million watched the programme, and hundreds phoned in to ask more about spaghetti cultivation and wanting to grow their own spaghetti trees. The BBC reportedly told them to "place a sprig of spaghetti in a tin of tomato sauce and hope for the best".

See also

• List of species in folklore and mythology

External links

• http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/spaghetti.html
• Still a good joke - 47 years on ((BBC News, 1 April 2004)
• The original broadcast (BBC, RealVideo)
• 1957: BBC fools the nation (BBC, On this day)